For Danny Chen, being a correctional officer wasn’t always the dream he carried as a child. With a laugh, he recalls, “When I was young, I had actually wanted to be a police.” After all, in both Hong Kong society and his mind, police officers were considered prestigious. They command authority; they carry guns; they stand up for the persecuted. Unfortunately, as Danny explained, “a dream is a dream. Reality is different.” Yet, though dreams don’t always work out, they still leave behind the ideas and ambition that drew them to the dream in the first place. For Danny, it instead took the form of serving inside a prison facility.

As a prison guard, most of his work consisted of patrolling cells, making sure no convicts would escape. Fortunately, his patrols were alleviated by the fact that all convicts of the Hong Kong prison system were required to work, unless excused by medical reasons. “Their labor was never hard,” he expands. Examples of work he’s observed include creating book covers, working with envelopes, knitting clothes, and chopping firewood. Different jobs provide different salaries, with harder trades paying more. A portion of the inmates’ earnings was required to be stored away as savings upon release, and the rest would go to the inmates, who could buy small amenities, such as snacks, from the jail commissary, which opened a few days every month. From Danny’s personal experience, prisoners could even buy cigarettes at discounted prices in comparison to outside stores, a very popular choice among inmates.

The reason why Danny was a prison guard in the first place was because he never passed the recruitment test. He even struggled to become a prison guard, taking three years and four attempts before he was finally admitted. The biggest challenge and turn-off for new recruits were the constant interactions with inmates. Nonetheless, Danny was able to push through these struggles and eventually get hired at a facility, where he would work for many decades thereafter, before finally moving to America.

Another aspect of Danny’s job were his dealings with suicidal and mentally ill inmates. Many prisoners, especially upon arrival, were depressed and couldn’t deal with the reality that they were locked up, potentially for decades. They may miss their parents, or conversely, not be able to handle the shame of being a prisoner in their parents’ eyes. Attempted hangings and smashing their heads against the walls was not an uncommon experience, and as such, they received extra surveillance.

Danny himself had many interactions with such people. “Although it may seem like our jobs require us to be harsh and punishing towards the prisoners, that was never our purpose. Prison guards aren’t here to wield guns to shoot you. One of our main goals,” alongside patrolling the cells, of course, “was to act as counseling for the inmates, and to use our languages to uplift them.” Correctional officers would first speak to people in neighboring cells to find out the cause of their anger, sadness, or depression, and upon finding it, would attempt to console the inmates. Thus, it was a common sight in the Hong Kong prisons for the guards and prisoners to interact. After all, as Danny said, “What else would we do in our eight hour shifts?”

As expected, however, interactions led to conflict, though they were rare and thankfully never dangerous. “When we patrolled the prison, the prisoners would always attempt to provoke us–‘We’re going to kill you,’ or ‘We’re going to find a hitman,’” Danny said casually. “I was a guard for decades, and it was something we’d hear daily.” Yet, he added, nothing would ever come of those threats. “The prisoners were in jail because they did something illegal, got caught, and were sentenced by a judge.” Nowhere was Danny, nor any other guard, involved in the process of bringing the convicts to justice. As a result, outbursts from convicts were typically only confined to what Danny referred to as “bad days.”

“Everybody has unhappy moments,” he explained. “Perhaps they received a notice that their fiancé ran,” or heard that their parents passed, “and they might take their anger out on us.” However, Danny again emphasized that conflicts never grew violent, and his calm tone suggested he viewed these prisoners with empathy, understanding the emotional impact of death and abandonment. Nevertheless, many were unable to handle the criticism and left.

In fact, oftentimes, the guards and convicts would even come to a mutual understanding of the others’ situations. The guards were merely doing their jobs and preferred to avoid unnecessary complications; similarly, the convicts needed the guards, too: why would they make their imprisonment harder than it needed to be? Certain convicts, drug-addicts and the ill in particular, had frail bodies. “Their bodies would hurt, especially at midnight. They’d have to come up to us and ask us to seek medical aid on their behalf. They couldn’t get it themselves. Or, they could just be cold and want more blankets. Typically, a prisoner only receives three to five, but we had permission to request more blankets for them. Even food–we could give certain prisoners extra food,” Danny said. Thus, in light of these benefits, the prisoners were never overly provocative or obnoxious around the guards. “Why would I help the prisoners if they treated me badly?”

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that inmates in Hong Kong’s prison systems were treated well. As such, given the poor state of living in parts of Southeast Asia, many people would actively choose to be incarcerated in, and exclusively in, Hong Kong’s prison system, which maintained its high ethical standards and treatment even after being handed off to China in 1997. There is no death penalty in Hong Kong, unlike mainland China. Alongside the aforementioned benefits, inmates would even receive some basic air conditioning during hotter days. Prisoners were ensured decent-quality food, which contained both protein and fruit: “inmates are guaranteed to receive fish for breakfast, and some form of meat for dinner, often chicken, alongside fruits, like oranges.” This can be reflected in prisoners who voluntarily chose to be incarcerated, with many going as far to immigrate and to Hong Kong and commit petty theft and other misdemeanors, just to stay in their prisons. “This was especially true for people who were ill and had diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, and AIDs,” Danny says. “Even drug addicts, after running out of money, would choose to enter prison for a place to get back on their feet. They don’t have drugs, but at least they receive free food from the government.”

This unfortunate truth is especially prevalent in recent years. Hong Kong has historically been a very expensive city to live in, especially in recent years. According to statistics from 2021, Hong Kong is the fifth most expensive city in the whole world to live in, beating out America’s notorious New York and Los Angeles. Coupled with lower pay than many western countries, many prisoners in modern times, even without deadly or terminal illnesses, are actively committing crimes to end up in jail, where they could at least be fed. With estimates of 100,000 Hongkongers living in “coffin cubicles,” housing the size of literal cabinets, it’s no wonder people would choose crime and jail over spending their years in a cabinet-sized room.

However, in spite of the depressing situation for both inmates that willingly chose to become incarcerated and inmates that were punished by the justice system, guards like Danny Chen will continue doing their work, consoling the souls in Hong Kong’s prison facilities. After all, though Danny was never able to become a police as he had wished for, this doesn’t mean he will stop making a difference in the world, even if it’s as simple as talking to suicidal, bored, drug-addicted, terminally ill, or financially strained prisoners in an attempt to lift them up, and point them towards a future beyond the jail cell.